The technology disclosed herein generally relates to X-ray imaging systems. More specifically, the technology disclosed herein relates to systems and methods for pasting a plurality of X-ray images.
Typically, a field of view (FOV) of an X-ray image is constrained by the size of a detector of an X-ray imaging system. Often, healthcare professionals favor viewing, for example, an anatomical area/region of a patient that is larger than the FOV of a single X-ray image. Use of image pasting for generating the final image simulates providing a larger field of view of anatomy than what is possible today by a single digital acquisition. Consequently, multiple X-ray images are acquired. These images are registered and merged together.
Currently available methods to generate the final image from the multiple X-ray images entail pasting of the X-ray images to merge the multiple X-ray images. However, these methods suffer from have numerous problems due to, for example, dose variations in acquiring the X-ray images, motion of the patient while acquiring the X-ray images, presence of implants in the patient, presence of noise in the X-ray images, and the like. As will be appreciated, erroneous registration and pasting of the multiple X-ray images may lead to, for example, erroneous diagnosis and treatment methods of the patient.
Additionally, the efficiency of the pasting process is dependent on accuracy of the registration of the multiple images. By way of example, errors that arise as a consequence of poor registration of images may lead to wrong diagnosis of infection, tumor, or injury. Other examples include error in vertebrae counting, fracture identification, and the like. The unique features of this invention are the elegant solutions for the major failure modes of existing methods described above.